VISAKHAPATNAM:
Assailing the State Government's housing policy, the CPI(M) has declared an agitational programme to press for distribution of house-sites to the eligible at Gajuwaka and Pedagantyada.

``The move to shift the poor away from the city under various schemes is against the objectives of the national urban and housing policy,'' the CPI(M) State Secretariat member, Ch. Narsinga Rao, told presspersons on Wednesday. The State Government had issued GOs 243, 244 and 245 laying down guidelines for acquiring land and allotting it to various sections.

Accordingly, land would be allotted to judges, civil servants and other Government employees after forming housing societies but no mention had been made of house-sites for the poor, he noted.

The GOs ruling out house-sites to the poor in Rangareddy and Hyderabad districts had already been issued, he said and alleged that the same thing was being implemented in other parts of the State also.

Mr. Narsinga Rao said under Rajiv Gruhakalpa housing scheme, Government help was nominal. The poor had to borrow from banks. The subsidy was higher in VAMBAY but the norm that houses should be provided on the ground floor was not adhered to. In both schemes, the poor were being shifted away from the city.

More than enough

Demanding that around 2,000 acres in Survey no. 274 of Pedagantyada should be given to the poor living at Gajuwaka and Pedagantyada, he announced an agitation for the purpose. The land was involved in litigation till some time ago, but after a recent court judgment, it came under Government control. The entire land should be allotted to the poor for house-sites as it would accommodate a whopping 96,000 families, much more than the demand, he said.